3 triples profits adding 697,000 customers in a year

3 UK, the mobile network, has more than tripled its profits after adding 697,000 customers in a year.

Operating profits at 3, which is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, rose to £86m in the first six months of 2013, up from £26m in the same period last year.

New subscribers willing to sign contracts for top-of-the-range smartphones helped boost the company's revenues 9% year on year, reaching a first half total of £1bn for the first time since the network's launch in 2003.

3's service revenue, from bills for calls, text and internet use, has remained flat at £667m for the first half of the year, but its handset revenues grew 30% to £321m.

I'm not surprised and confess to a certain amount of pleasure at reading this.

I left Orange for Three's One Plan. 6 weeks later my wife left T-Mobile for the same reason. She actually bought out the remaining 4 months of her contract so she could get access to Three's unlimited data and a 'free' iPhone 5.

We're now paying slightly less per month for our mobiles with unlimited data and tethering than we were in our old place for a BT line, 2 mobiles with the usual pathetic data allocations, and ADSL Internet.

My guess is at least one of the other providers will match Three's data offering sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.